Thursday, January 06, 2011

Media Bullpen; Gleason Family Foundation

Head on over to MediaBullpen.com to check out the new and (likely) obnoxious voice in the education realm. The Bullpen, a joint project between the Gates Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, an Gleason Family Foundation, will evaluate media coverage of education issues. It's run by the Center for Education Reform. The Gates Foundation invested $275,000 in the project; dollar amounts for the others are unknown.

In the edu-field, Gates and Walton are hardly unknown names, even for the casual observer. The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation is well-known, too, but more for their involvement in funding conservative think tanks and other right-wing causes. The Gleason Family Foundation, the fourth funder in this attempt at "media accountability," was one I hadn't read much about before. For interested readers, here's a list of the edu-advocacy orgs they've supported over the years:

It's not quite a "who's who" in right-wing edu circles (no Fordham?), but it's pretty close. Readers interested in specific donations can check the foundation's 990 tax forms. The best way to find them is search "Gleason foundation" through the Foundation Center's 990 finder (they're the Gleason Foundation from New York). That'll give you all 990s up through 2007. The foundation's newer 990s can be found here.